Taxi drivers need better CNG facilities

THE EDITOR: Hours after hours in the menacing heat, I had to patiently wait for my vehicle to be refuelled, due to the malfunctioning of a CNG unit at a gas station in Chaguanas. As an industrious taxi driver, I as well as 50 other taxis, depend on that particular gas station for CNG, mainly because it is the only gas station with a CNG unit in Chaguanas. For the past few months, the CNG unit has been malfunctioning till this date. I left the commotion at Chaguanas and drove some miles to the gas station at Curepe Junction hoping that the CNG in my car would be adequate. Unfortunatley, the CNG unit at Curepe Junction was out of order also. To add to the disappointments, I had to drive with little CNG to Mt Lambert gas station. When I eventually arrived at my destination, the CNG crisis had arrived there too.

The CNG unit was out of order. Without hesitation I drove to the gas station at the Maritime Plaza Roundabout to find out that the CNG unit’s pressure was very low. It was the Government who encouraged the taxi drivers to purchase these CNG kits which cost approximately $10,000 but they are not providing adequate services to ensure taxi drivers’ needs are met. Some taxi drivers have switched from the environmental friendly CNG and are using the toxic diesel gas because we are not getting our CNG tanks refuelled on time. If  taxi drivers continue to use diesel as their vehicle’s fuel, they will contribute to global warming when the carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide from the emissions of a diesel fuelled car, dissolves into the atmosphere.

We, the taxi drivers, had to go out of our area to get CNG in order to make a living. We contacted the National Petroleum Company. It took them two days just to check on the one in Chaguanas. There were two CNG units in Chaguanas but due to an interference with an electricity pole in 2002, one was out of order. NP never came to look into the serious matter. The taxi drivers depend on CNG greatly. I would like NP to provide the necessary arrangements to improve the quality of the CNG units throughout Trinidad. It is time taxi drivers get better CNG facilities.

BOYSIE RAMSUMAIR
Cunupia